Fund for a Better Waterfront

The City’s parks concepts, especially the one that pertains to the Maxwell Place Waterfront Park, have evolved over the years.

When first conceived, before my Administration, one of the ideas from the proposed developers was to create a parks conservancy to manage and administer new open space facilities, such as the one at Maxwell Place. This idea was embraced by Ron Hine and his Fund for a Better Waterfront.

Over the past few years it was determined through careful planning in close partnership with the City Council, zoning board, and progressive members of the community that the City, not a conservancy, should operate and maintain City owned public spaces. Unfortunately, Mr. Hine, who hoped to administer the conservancy, apparently opposes the fact that the City is maintaining Maxwell Place Waterfront Park in conjunction with Toll Brothers, the developer of the project at the present time.

As you are aware, this is a beautiful facility. It contains more green space than the original plan, a child’s play area, a stunning beach, a waterfront walkway, and soon, a fishing pier and kayaking program for kids and adults out of the boathouse. It is breathtaking. There’s even a place for you to bring Oscar, your trusted dog.

It is unfortunate to hear that Mr. Hine’s love for granite curbs has clouded his vision of green spaces for people to enjoy.

This park is a gem and I was proud to officiate the grand opening. We are committed to creating even more open space and ball fields and to working for you.

The good news and the bad concerning Maxwell Place Park

On Tuesday, September 18, Hoboken Mayor David Roberts cut the ribbon to officially open the waterfront park at Maxwell Place. What has been in the works since early 2001, prior to Roberts election as Mayor, is now becoming a reality. This park is noteworthy for several reasons. The fact that the developers devoted more than 1/3 of their land for a public park is unprecedented along New Jersey’s Hudson River “gold coast” where developers have sought to keep as much of this valuable land for their own use as possible.

In addition, Maxwell Place Park, which will be about five acres when completed, provides a significant addition to Hoboken’s continuous, linear waterfront park. The Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) is responsible for both the original concept of a continuous, public waterfront park for Hoboken (part of its plan for the Hoboken waterfront created in 1990) and the proposal at the Maxwell Place site to dedicate the land on the riverside of Sinatra Drive North for a public park.

Unfortunately, the park that was opened with great fanfare on Tuesday was not the park promised back in 2001. Once the developers decided to donate the parkland to the City, the City chose to exclude FBW from the process of creating this park. Concrete curbing was substituted for granite. Most of the expansive natural beach was covered with rip-rap. The number and size of the trees, especially along the walkway was drastically reduced. The opportunity to create a world class waterfront in Hoboken has been seriously diminished.

Description – The mission of the Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) is to secure the water’s edge along the Hudson River as public parkland that will be enjoyed by people of all walks of life for generations to comeWebsite – www.betterwaterfront.org Address – PO Box 1965, Hoboken, NJ 07030Telephone – 201-217-0500

It did break my heart to see those old amazing great trees torn down. And I bet that small rock rip-rap on the beach could easily be moved away too. I bet in one day. I don’t think it would be hard to correct those two things if we try. We need a tree planting day… and…Lesson learned… I don’t think the developers should ever have the say in the final design process for the community.

The Mayor misses the point, for this is not about Ron Hine nor is it about who should manage the park. It is about inclusive government and good design. The agreement by the developers to donate more than 1/3 of their land as public open space, thus creating Maxwell Place Park, is a remarkable achievement that we — the Mayor, Fund for a Better Waterfront (FBW) and the entire Hoboken community — should all be proud of. FBW hammered out this agreement with the original developers. It called for the entire cost of the project to be paid for by them and the annual maintenance to be covered by the revenue derived from this residential project. In this day of shrinking public dollars devoted to the creation of parks, this is a model that we should all learn from. The original design by FBW’s planner and landscape architect would have made Maxwell Place Park the jewel in the crown of Hoboken’s waterfront parks. It is unfortunate that our Mayor is unable to recognize features that make the difference between great parks — Pier A Park for example — and one that is just mediocre. It is also unfortunate that he does not appreciate the value of working with the many citizens and civic groups in Hoboken that have played such a constructive role in the past helping our city create a waterfront that is today enjoyed and dearly loved by the entire community. With the completion of Maxwell Place Park,… Read more »

[quote comment=”44767″]Let me get this straight…. I’m not supposed to bust on the mayor (who gave us Shoprite “park”)[/quote] I appreciated what Dawn Zimmer accomplished with the simple gesture of a wiffle ball game. But I think the real test of her meddle would be to see what she can come up with for more than 2 people to do in Shoprite Park.

btw, maybe a name change would help, like Shoprite Fields or Shoprite National Park.